Joining hands against the UPA and NDA, led by the Congress and the BJP, respectively, the Third Front on Thursday formally revived itself at a rally in Tumkur in Karnataka with eight regional parties present pledging support to an anti-Congress, anti-BJP entity.
Although both the Congress and the BJP promptly ridiculed the development, political pundits refused to write off the Front, especially in the backdrop of the shocking breakup between the BJP and BJD in Orissa and the failure of the Congress to finalised an understanding with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. The Front is being seen as an important player in a post-poll situation in the wake of renewed assessments that the Congress as well as the BJP may not be able to significantly improve its tally from the last time. Some assessments, in fact, suggest that the two main parties could end up with lesser number of seats, with the gainer being regional formations.
The new Front comprises the Left?CPI-M, CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc? , TDP, TRS, JD-S and Bhajan Lal?s Haryana Janahit Party. AIADMK and BSP supremos?Jayalalithaa and Mayawati?, however, were not personally present at the launch of the combine but they send their senior representatives V Maitreyan and SC Mishra.
Former prime minister HD Devegowda as well as CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat, who are piloting the new entity maintained on Thursday evening that they were there to stay but were ambiguous on who will lead the Front, an issue that is expected to be its weakest point. That the issue of prime ministership would surely trouble them was evident when BSP’s Mishra maintained that their objective is to make Mayawati as the prime minister. TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu, along with other Front leaders, is expected to meet Mayawati on March 15 to discuss seat-sharing and issue of prime ministership.
On Thursday, though, leaders of the new alliance were enthused and charged that both the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA had failed to address people’s grievances. ?We do not want power to be centralised in Delhi. We do not believe in two-party system,? Karat said. ?Neither the UPA nor the NDA have stable alliances. NDA is a sinking ship…Orissa has sunk NDA,? he said, adding ?We represent parties and forces which will provide new policy direction.?
Gowda, who hosted the rally, said the force would come out with a national policy document on the basis of which it will seek votes in the coming elections. Interestingly, the launch of the Front elicited different responses from various regional parties. The Samajwadi Party, which has otherwise been a great votary of a third alternative, maintained that it was an ?opportunistic alliance? whose role will be limited to ?political muscle flexing?. ?Amongst the Third Front constituents, it is difficult to distinguish between who is secular and who is communal,? SP general secretary Amar Singh told reporters here, in an obvious reference to its primary enemy, the BSP. ?BSP and BJP are one. The way they are fielding candidates clearly shows that there is an understanding between the two parties,? he said.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, however, said from Pune that the Front could not be ignored if the UPA failed to get majority in the LS elections. ?If we do not get majority, we will have to talk to the Third front,? he said.